AFP finishes poll fraud probe

A military fact-finding board has completed its investigation three months after it was created to look into the alleged participation of some military officers in electoral fraud last year in Mindanao.

The findings will be released next week at the earliest.

Lt. Cmdr. Evan Earl Pabalan, military fact-finding board spokesman, said the body will submit its final report to Armed Forces chief Gen. Generoso Senga in the last week of October or the first week of November.

"Definitely, the board will be submitting a factual report," he said. "It is based on the outcome of the probe."

Pabalan said the fact-finding group has performed its assigned mandate and will stand by its recommendation once it is has been finalized.

"If there are indications of unprofessionalism (among the troops), they would be recommended for further investigation and subsequent… actions," he said.

Pabalan also said that the findings, once submitted to Senga, would be made public to avoid any suspicion of a cover-up.

"As previously stated, the board, by authority of the Chief of Staff, shall look into the systems that prevailed during the last national elections," he said.

"It shall also examine the professional conduct of the AFP officers and men."

The board interviewed 73 resource persons who, as members of Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections), were deputized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during the 2004 elections, he added.

Pabalan said the fact-finding board will recommend that the concerned officers be investigated further if they are found to have taken part in electoral fraud during last year’s elections.

"The fact-finding board is just a recommendatory body," he said.

"If there are noted violations, it will recommend that those involved be placed under investigation by the proper military body."

Several Task Force HOPE officials were dragged into allegations of vote-rigging after four senior military officers were mentioned in the "Hello Garci" recordings, allegedly gathered through wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and a former election official about cheating in last year’s elections.

Three of the military officers are now Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Army 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon and former Armed Forces Southern Command chief retired Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko.

Former Philippine Military Academy deputy superintendent, retired Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani, has denied involvement in the alleged cheating.

Gudani was former 1st Marine Brigade commander, while Esperon was Task Force Hope deputy commanders and the AFP’s operations chief.

Gudani was ordered court-martialed after he testified before the Senate on alleged vote rigging in Mindanao without getting prior clearance from Malacañang.